Alexander ~

"Yeah sure! I'm telling you, you're going to love camp. Now grab onto my arm." Nico snickered as he repeated my words.

Nico laughed when I growled again at him. Ugh, I swear my half-brother will be the death of me. After a few seconds of pure darkness, we suddenly appeared under a pine tree. Why of course, that's Thalia's pine. I remembered the story I heard of the daughter of Zeus, who was turned into a tree by her father who took pity on her when she was left alone to fight an army of monsters. I took a look at my surroundings. The strawberry plantations seemed to be never ending. There were kids all over the place. They all seemed to be ranged from seven to sixteen year olds, all wearing battle armor or orange Camp Half-Blood t-shirts.

We continued walking down the dirt path, passing the arena, which resembled the Coliseum that still stands in Rome, the amphitheater, volleyball courts, and the climbing wall before we stopped right in front of a blue four-story farmhouse.

"This is the Big House." Nico said pointing to the building right in front of us. "Oh yeah, and be respectful and everything because um … well, Mr. D is a god."

"Lord Dionysus I assume?"

Nico merely nodded and gestured at the door.

I pushed open the door, slowly walking in to see a rather porky man, and a man in a wheelchair playing pinochle.

"Ah Nico! It's nice to see you again. Look Mr. D, he's got a new camper with him too!" the man in the wheelchair said.

Mr. D or Dionysus didn't even seem to care. He just grumbled without looking up from his cards.

The man in the wheelchair turned to me with a warm smile on his face.

"Hello there. My name is Chiron, and I'm the activities director here. Mr. D over there is the camp director. Welcome to Camp Half-Blood. Now, what is your name?"

"Alexander, but you can call me Alex."

"I see. Ok Alex, do you have any idea who your Olympian parent is?"

"Yes, in fact I do. My father is Lord Hades."

Chiron's eyes seemed to pop out at the mention of dad's name.

Mr. D finally looked up from his cards and took a quick glance at me.

"That would explain the hood and black robes."

"A child of the Big Three? Interesting. Has Hades …" Chiron thought out loud and finally snapped back into reality. "How old are you Alex?"

"I appear to be 19 years old, but I've actually been around before the World Wars. Like Nico, I've been stuck in the Lotus Casino for quite a while."

"I see. All right then, Nico and I will be giving you the grand tour. Just let me get out of this wheelchair."

Slowly, his legs began to change into hooves, and the wheelchair vanished, revealing his true centaur form.

"Now, shall we?"

After a better look around the camp, they showed me the cabin that I would be staying in with Nico. The cabin was completely black, with two torches that blazed with green fire through day and night.

"Well Alex, that's about it. Dinner's at 6:30 so Nico you know what to do. That leaves you with less than half an hour, so why don't you just get yourself comfortable inside. I have to go check on some campers so I'll see you soon." Chiron trotted off leaving me with a grinning Nico by my side.

"So you ready to see the awesomeness of this cabin?" Nico said, while putting his arm over my shoulder.

I sighed. Brotherly love. Lovely.

The cabin was well … big, with skulls that decorated the front steps, with a door made of iron. The floor was full of dust, the walls painted black and everything black, the air was musty resembling the Underworld itself. There were surprisingly two beds in the cabin. The bed frames were made out of what looked like human bones, covered with an air mattress and black sheets. Typical Hades cabin, it felt just like I was at home. No this was my home now.

"You can take the left half of the room. Put whatever you want over there, it's yours now."

"Thanks Nico. But I'm just wondering, why are there two beds in this cabin?"

Nico's smile suddenly disappeared, replaced with an expressionless face.

"My sister, Bianca. I thought she was going to come back to me. I left it there for her. But she's never going to come back anymore."

"Nico … I'm sorry. If I had known, I wouldn't have asked."

"It's ok, it doesn't matter."

Suddenly a horn sound blasted through the camp.

"Come on. Dinner time."

We filed into the mess hall with a bunch of other campers. We were the last ones to get in since we were at the cabins, while the other campers were out dong their activities, so they were closer to the mess than we were.

"Ah there they are!" Chiron said from the table at the farthest end of the hall. "Campers settle down. First of all, the hunters, and Lady Artemis herself are going to be staying here for a while, so I expect all of you to behave yourselves. And one more thing, we have a new camper here today."

There were some cheers coming from the campers.

"Determined or undetermined?" I heard someone yell.

"Why don't we let him explain?" Chiron said, smiling at me.

I never liked to be put at the center of everyone's attention but guess what. I had more than a hundred half bloods, two-dozen hunters, a centaur, and three gods Dionysus, Hestia, and Artemis looking at me. Great, this is just … ugh!

"My name is Alexander Stone, but you can just call me Alex. And yes, to answer your question, I am determined; a son of Hades in fact. I was stuck in the Lotus Casino for a long time like Nico was. And one more thing, I am the lost child of Hades."

There was a collective gasp coming from everyone in the room.

"The … the … lost child of Hades?" someone stammered. "You mean that, it's real? You're the one who escaped the wrath of Lord Zeus? You're the one who survived after being hit by the master bolt?"

"Yes, that's why I have the scar." I took off my hood to show the campers the scar than ran down the left side of my face. "It's strange though, I survived the master bolt but can still be wounded or killed like a regular person. Oh and Chiron, there's a voice has been telling me that I must fulfill my destiny. A quest. I've also been having strange dreams. I keep seeing images of rivers and black water. Is that uh … normal?"

"Visions and … dreams? Destiny? Quest? Oh my, it's your first day here and you're going to see the oracle for the first time." Chiron looked at me, sudden concern in his eyes. "Rachel." he said, looking at the redheaded girl that sat two seats down from him.

Suddenly she began to float slightly in the air, and green smoke wisped out of her mouth, surrounding her.

A hero will step forth,

In a land of no joy,

To save the lost one,

With three instead of a convoy.

One will emerge as the man of forgetfulness,

Hell and sky will reunite,

Sons of death, and daughter of lightning,

Brave the Underworld's bite.

All against three,

And at one's great cost,

A loved one,

Will be lost.

Slowly she descended back on the ground, collapsing on the closest chair, exhausted.

A big thank you to those who reviewed. You know who you are (HuckleberryPeriwinkle and Mystery Composer) So what do you think? Remember to R&R!